Stories tagged “challenge”

“I can’t believe you’re paying me for this,” he said, squinting into the harsh desert sun. Sal’s arms hung by his sides, the weight of the hammer pulling his right arm taught. The handle swayed back and forth, barely perce...

“You’ve got cucumbers on your eyes.” I snicker.
“They’re supposed to help enhance my beauty.” She was nonchalant and a little irritated.
“Well, can you stop beautifying yourself and get ready for dinner with yo...

Different dimensions.
Different eras.
Different people.
All still the same.
Standing on the clifftops, listening to the sound of silence, as I hear your voice resonating in my mind.
And I miss you.
The world standing still as you run for forever away.
...

Hirc shrugged and absently tapped the harmonica against one of his horns. He couldn’t help but glance at his friend’s massive ones, curved and majestic. Everything about the minotaur was massive, larger than life, from his hulking head to h...

I realized reality is,
and if I’m a brain in a vat,
and all my perceptions electrical signals,
reality then must be that.
So it’s not that reality isn’t,
it’s just not how I think it to be.
Should I then waste my time and obsess...

Oscar H. Ringling, the forgotten brother, was always on the outer with his family. Maligned by his father when he decided at an early age to not follow in the footsteps of his predecessors, he secretly always wished that he had not been born without th...

Most days, I have this urge to just abandon modern “civilisation,” hole up in some mahoosive castle somewhere, live in complete catatonic seclusion and obscurity, and never be heard from again.
Can you blame me?
Most everything that occurs...

I stand nervously in front of the crowd, my senses cut off by a blindfold and blasting music. What if they pair me up with the B.O. guy? Or the guy who’s been left back four years and has more beard than face? Or what if it’s Cole…mmm...

I had to do it.
I’d been trying to be one of the populars ever since fifth grade. I begged my mom to put me in cheerleading and ballet and tennis and basketball with the cool kids. I drank what they drank, smoked what they smoked, dropped my grades, ...

Angry wordless shouts. The sharp hiss of pottery shattering.
I opened the door, pushing back a mess of debris that had piled up against it. Using my most authorative tone, I addressed my host. “Robert! Stop this madness.”
“I cannot, n...

Today was my day. It had taken three hundred and sixty-five other days to reach this one and I claimed this one as mine.
We were using a new room, at least it was new to us, but it looked and smelled old and musty. Wood panelling on the walls had warpe...

Before the door finished shutting, I was already running back up the stairs. By the time I reached the great detective, I was out of breath and sagged against his desk for support.
Holmes looked up from his writing and stared with piercing eyes. “...

Sometimes memories come out of nowhere. The past overwhelms the present. In a key moment, it can even change the future. Which is why my wrists are currently zip-tied behind my back.
I was drunk when I did it the first time. It wasn’t for a job e...

Joshua “Here Comes the Guns” Bryan burst into the conference room that was being used as a hostage holding room, through the plate glass window, showering the ground below with bladed rain.
He smiled a cocky smile and said, “I am the ...

In a featureless plain where there was neither heighth nor depth, nor matter nor energy there was an existence, an awareness from before time began, that existed, exists and will exist long after time has ended.
“What is reality?” I asked.
...

Dean Al French was sweating. He was always sweating. Students called him the Wet Towel. But this was different. This was unhealthy, had to be. If he kept his job he was finally going to use that union insurance, go see a doctor about this sweating thin...

Mary rubbed her belly again trying to figure out why she was feeling so empty. She wasn’t hungry or at least no food sounded good. Her fingers probed through the thin gown into the soft flesh of her stomach. No muscles felt sore but there was a k...

A spotlight came on, centering on a smartly dressed woman sitting on a stool at the front of the stage. Delicate fingers tuned an acoustic guitar. Her vibrant red hair and sharp facial features gave her a fox-like appearance. I had tagged her as ‘...

Life as a roving computer technician can be difficult. Sure I work for a business, one of those famous computer companies with a four letter name. I won’t reveal who they are but their mascot is a bunch of cows. Good mascot if you ask me, because...

A beautiful young woman paced irritably between pale marble angels that lined the stone walkway. Many had been worn down by life leaving little more than the shape of an angel. Any faces that remained were frozen in grief. Crows perched on them, watchi...

You poor homophobes
Slaves to misunderstanding-
Who are you to judge?
Which God demands hate?
Righteousness doesn’t work that way
Hypocritic critics
Embrace the future
Embrace each other in love
Build a better world

It was loneliness that finally drove him to do it. Well loneliness and opportunity. He had been a driver for a long time. Most of the time his passengers were the elderly or the morbidly obese. Only three times in five years had he picked up anyone und...